Alternate Endings
by CallYouByYourName
Summary: Maybe the endings we saw weren't the only endings there were.   Episode-based one-shots, strong Jalex.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Alternate Endings

**Fandom: **Wizards of Waverly Place

**Word Count: 1,997**

**Rating/Content: Jalex. PG to PG-13 for sibling incest (mainly implied), a few bad words, and unsupervised use of magic.**

**Spoilers/episodes: 'Beware Wolf' and 'Curb your Dragon'. **

**A/N: **Something different. Alternate Endings will be a series of one-shots, episode based, built around what would have happened if the events in an episode of Wizards had taken a slightly _different_ turn than they did on the show. It's not as dirty as it sounds. Also, not _all_ of them will be Jalex… but most of them will. ;) I'll try to update weekly.

**Beta:** Gigantic thanks to my beta xUsexSomebodyx, for saving me from my own grammar (and the other thousand fixes and suggestions).

**Summary: Ch 1: Beware Wolf **

"_My poor baby's a werewolf… what are we gonna do?"_

"_Well, I'm not shaving him."_

_-WOWP, Beware Wolf _

_**Disclaimer:** I don't Wizards of Waverly Place, or anything else that might look familiar. Damn, right?_

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><p>"<em>Alex, where are you going?"<em>

"_To tell Dad that Justin's' a dog, and I need him back right away!"_

_-WOWP, Beware Wolf_

Didn't she _tell_ Justin not to trust people on WizFace?

Alex just knows they're gonna find a way to blame her for this. Because even when it's not her fault? It's her fault. Which is completely unfair in this case, since she'd been the one to tell Justin that something was _seriously wrong_ with his blind date. Oh, and little known fun fact? When you _kiss_ a werewolf, you _turn into_ a werewolf.

By the time they make it home from the park, Justin's transformation is a lot more noticeable. The moon hangs high in the sky, full and fat and gloating. It shines pale on his coarse-looking fur, glistens from his long teeth and curved claws. When the reflected twin moons of his slightly feral eyes lock on Alex she's forced to look away, shivering.

Back home, their dad produces the recipe for a potion to trigger Justin's reversion from lupine loser back to plain old teenaged wizard and full-on dork… but there's a catch, apparently.

With magic, there's always a catch.

"I'll drink anything!" Justin growls. At least, she thinks that's what he said. His gnarled, elongated snout is making him harder and harder to understand. His words seem to catch somewhere between his throat and his teeth, coming out all snarly and bitten-off.

And he smells funny; not bad, exactly, but not like anything she's used to. It's a wild-animal smell, like rain and cut grass, musk and magic, almost too strong, but strangely compelling: it's the kind of thing you could bury your nose in. It makes Alex itchy to leave the room.

Her dad clears his throat: he seems to be struggling against a smile. "It's not exactly a _drinking potion_," he says, losing.

And, naturally, it won't be good enough just to soak him in the stuff, either: Justin needs to be _scrubbed._ The paws are going to be a problem. As will the increasingly doglike behavior, probably: Mom practically has to threaten him with a rolled-up newspaper before he'll hop in the bathtub. Of course, his reluctance could have something to do with the fact that the "tub" started life as a Rubbermaid trash can, before it was rinsed clean of eggshells and rotting coffee grounds, by their mother, and filled with several gallons of potion. Either way, someone is going to have to help him out. Justin can't hold a sponge properly at this point, and if he tries to wash his face he's probably going to lose an eye, with those claws of his. Alex avoids eye contact, silently nominating Max.

Yeah, that's not going to happen. It turns out that her parents think she just MIGHT have had something to do with them not finding out about Justin's condition until after he'd escaped to the park with his werewolf girlfriend. Apparently, they'd been planning to spend the rest of their lives together.

_("Okay, so I'm a werewolf," he'd protested. "Big deal! There's a price to love! Love hurts!)_

_(Yeah. Tell her about it, right?)_

* * *

><p>It goes without saying, almost, that Alex isn't thrilled about the idea of being Justin's personal attendant.<p>

"Well," says her mom, after Alex's protests, and with a downright wicked grin, "I guess you could always shave him instead, if you want."

And okay, so, GROSS.

* * *

><p>After the rest of her family has gone inside, Alex sidles up to the tub (trashcan, whatever) warily. Justin says nothing at all, just looks at her. His eyes aren't even the right color, they're all filled up with the moon. Instead of the calm blue-grey she's used to, his gaze is a fierce orangey yellow that glitters at her in a way she doesn't like. His eyes seem very bright.<p>

(Twin moons.)

She swallows her discomfort. "Yeah, okay, so 'big bad wolf'? Are you gonna help me out here, or just keep staring at me like I'm…" Alex feels the words dry up in her mouth. She's not going to finish that sentence.

(…_dinner_.)

"Well, it's your fault," he rumbles, just as she's begun to suspect he's lost the power of speech. Her head snaps up.

"MY fault! My fault? Justin, how can you possibly blame this one on _me?_"

"Easy. You didn't tell Mom and Dad where to find me until I was like… Like this!" He barks, lifting his paws from the murky water, making droplets bullet onto her face and neck

And, okay, maybe he has a _little bit_ of a point, there. Still: "Who told you to go out with her, _Justin?_ 'Cause I'm pretty sure I said it was a really, really bad idea to date some _stupid girl_ you hardly know and who you met on WIZ FACE!" She's shouting into his stupid, hairy face now, ignoring the warning chill up and down her spine when she leans into the warm animal musk of him.

_("You're just jealous that I'm falling in love," he'd told her, in the park, before his transformation. "Yeah, that's it, I am! I'm falling in love!" ) _

"It's still your fault," Justin growls softly. But he drops his eyes anyway, because no matter how hairy he gets, they're still Justin and Alex, and they have a certain way of doing things.

"Anyway, I can't," he grumbles apologetically, indicating his paws, "not with these things. So are you gonna help me, or not?" He cocks his head at her like a dog, begging. The expression would be oddly endearing, if she didn't hate him so much.

_You owe me, Alex_, he doesn't say. But she knows it; they both do. She does owe him and she always will. She'll never be able to even up the tally.

DAMN him.

Bristling in annoyance, Alex unbuttons her sweater and tears it off. "WHAT?" She huffs in response to Justin's look. "This is a cute sweater! I'm not gonna wreck it just so I can—can wash my brother!" There's no way to make that sound right. She looks down at her tank top: it covers all the important stuff. "Besides, this is fine."

Her brother's wolfish smile fails to be reassuring.

* * *

><p>"Justin!" She cries short while later, beyond exasperated. He just grins at her, tongue lolling, then resumes trying to squirm away. For the love of Peace and Justice, it's like washing <em>Dragon.<em>

Alex is drenched. She wonders how long they've been at this, and whether her parents and younger brother have stopped giggling yet, or have perhaps suffocated to death on their own stupid amusement at her predicament, somewhere in the loft. Justin's drenched too, along with the chairs, the terrace, and a good portion of the sidewalk below… all soaked. And Justin is still a dog.

"Okay, that's it," Alex snaps. Shucking her sandals, she snatches up a stiff brush and a washcloth, scales the side of the trashcan-cum-werewolf-washing-station, and slides in. The water is warm and sudsy, with a faint medicinal smell.

"You're going… to change… back!" she pants, pinning one arm behind his back in a practiced wrestling hold. Ignoring his whimpering protests, she scrubs mercilessly. When water and potion run into his eyes, she doesn't slow. Trapped, Justin begins to howl.

The long, mournful note carries across the honeycomb of terraces and into the clear night. It's haunting and ancient. Alex flicks him in the nose.

"Hey!" Justin yelps, cupping a protective paw around his injured muzzle.

Alex resumes her tender ministrations with the brush. "The neighbors will hear you!" She hisses, working the stiff bristles between his shoulder blades, then up his neck and behind his ears."

"That feels… kinda good," Justin sighs.

_Figures._

Alex cups her hands to dump palmfuls of potion onto his big, dumb head, massaging it roughly into his scalp. Justin starts making those little growly noises like Dragon getting his belly rubbed (which she SO is not doing, not even if he asks). She grimaces, ordering, "Close your eyes," and immediately drenches his face with the washcloth. When Justin gasps and splutters, it makes her smile.

"Hey!" he barks again, twisting away.

"Sorry," she grins.

Alex releases her hold on his captured arm in favor of grabbing him by the scruff of the neck. She slides around him in the narrow Rubbermaid until she's facing him. She wipes his face while he reflexively tries to bat her away, still half-blind from the water in his eyes.

_Woah, do these look sharp or what!_ Alex catches the flailing paw and pins it firmly to his side. "Don't think I won't go get the leash," she mutters, but smiling.. Justin smiles back… Or maybe he's just getting too hot in the tub.

She dunks the washcloth and rubs roughly down the side of his throat. He arches his neck to let her do it, twisting his head to give her better access. Handfuls of fur come off as she scrubs.

"Hold still, Justin," she warns, catching a fistful of the hair on his head, trying to hold him in place as he begins to wriggle happily. She rinses his neck and begins on his collarbone and the slope of his shoulders. Without looking up, she asks "Why did you say it was still my fault?"

Justin stops his wiggling abruptly. "When?"

His voice, she notices, is a little less… growly. More like Justin's supposed to sound. "Just now, dummy," she mutters, sudsing grime and hair from his surprisingly well-muscled chest—er, from his chest. It seems like he doesn't answer her for a long time.

"Just that I went out with her because of you," he says, finally. His voice is low and oddly pitched.

Alex stops what she's doing to look up at him, and sees two things at the same time. One, that Justin is almost entirely, well, _Justin_, and two, that her hand has fallen from his hair to the slippery nape of his neck. She decides not to move it right away.

Furless, he glistens in the reflected glow of the streetlight, dripping with water and magic. Alex pushes a sopping lock of hair out of her face, frowning at him. She notices for the first time that she's a little breathless, that her clothes are clumped and sticking to her, swollen with water. She discards the dripping rag on the tub's edge, sloshing potion.

"I only went out with her because of you," he says again, sort of guiltily, his voice soft. His eyes are his own warm grey-blue, and they reflect nothing but Alex, as he looks at her. She looks back. She's still touching him, and he's Justin again.

_Say what you mean_ she wants to demand, but the words lodge in her throat.

Instead, she tosses back, "You mean to prove your stupid point right? Because I told you it was a bad idea?" Her poker face is on, but her heart's beating a crazy rhythm. She knows that's not what he means.

She knows he'll never admit to anything.

The night stretches out around them, warm and clear and still. There's was no one else on the terrace, or awake in the loft. Almost, she'd swear that there's no one else in the entire world. From somewhere not too far away there's the sound of someone howling.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:**Alternate Endings

**Fandom:**Wizards of Waverly Place

_**Ch 2: The Good, The Bad, and the Alex**_

**Word Count: 2,270**

**Rating/Content: Jalex. PG to PG-13 for sibling incest (mainly implied), a few bad words, and unsupervised use of magic.**

**Spoilers/episodes: The Good, the Bad, and the Alex.**

**Beta:** Thanks to my awesome beta TheWolfHourx, whose most recent fic **The Bad Alex **is definitely worth checking out. (Particularly if this chapter is a little too PG for you, hint, hint. Just sayin'.)

_**Disclaimer:** I don't Wizards of Waverly Place, or anything else that might look familiar. Damn, right?_

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><p><strong>Summary: <strong> No, she really was going to go through with it.

"_If I get enough wizards who are behind in their family Wizard competition to perform a spell at the same time, it will melt down the power distributor in the hall of transfers. Then, no Wizard will ever have to give up their powers again!"_

_( Wizards of Waverly Place, S6 Epi 1: The Good, the Bad, and the Alex)_

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><p>Damnit, but sometimes Justin went too far.<p>

After he'd foiled Alex and Stevie's attempt to subvert the laws of Wizardry, retain their powers forever, and eventually take over the world(s), Alex didn't speak to him for a week.

Her friend Stevie's plan for the Wizard Rebellion had been simple but brilliant; overload the power distributor at Wizard City Hall. Once it was offline, Wizard siblings would no longer be forced to compete against one another in family Wizard competitions, a cruel tradition that awarded the combined powers to the winner, leaving the losers magic-less forever. After that, everything would have been different.

But then, _of course_, Justin had come along and ruined everything. At the crucial moment, he'd physically held her back, stopping her from pulling the switch that would have set everything in motion. She was forced to pretend she'd been planning for that all along, and the Rebellion was finished before it had even begun.

Which was why Alex wasn't speaking to him.

Justin had been unusually coy throughout that week as well, quiet and distracted and thoughtful… not his usually buttinsky self at all. He hadn't even bothered to try and make Alex acknowledge him, which was a little disappointing. (If you're going to ignore people, it's better if they act like they want to talk to you.)

Nope, instead he just skulked around the loft, nose stuck in those dusty old books of his. He spent way too much time on the Wiz Web , and he watched the news like it was his job, even going so far as to catch both the mortal news on Channel 9 and the Wiz News on the abracadoodler. It was like… well, it was like Alex being mad at him didn't even _matter._

Which, totally unacceptable. When Alex punishes someone, he's supposed to SUFFER is the idea, okay? After a week crawls past in the uneasy peace of a standoff, Alex decides she's had enough. Fed up with Justin, him and his crummy, unsatisfying nonchalance, she sets about hunting him down, to punish him properly.

He's not even bothering to hide from her, so he's totally easy to find. Alex catches him in the Lair, quickly scans the perimeter to make sure they're really alone, and pounces.

"Why'd you do it, Justin!"

He looks up at her vacantly, wearing the distant expression he always gets when he's been a million miles away, lost in one book or another, and he's not all the way back yet.

That's not okay _either_, when Alex gets his attention she's supposed to get _all_ of it, okay, and when he actually looks down like _he's going to go back to the book,_ his sudden departure from the rules makes her so mad that she reaches down and smacks it right out of his hands.

The book lands on the floor with a satisfying spine-cracking bang, and Alex hopes it's _broken_. She wishes it would shatter like glass, and all the words would come spilling out, and he'd never be able to read it again.

Alex _hates_ that book.

Justin gives her a look like he's disappointed in her, and goes to pick it up off the floor. Alex kicks it out of his reach instead, darting forward to trap him in the chair.

"_Why,_ Justin?"

He scowls at her and tries to push past her, but she takes advantage of their relative positions to shove him back down on his ass. "Don't you ignore me!" she cries, and she's totally taken aback by the choked way her words come out. Well,, she _should_ be upset, right? Alex was supposed to be the hero of the Wizard Rebellion. She was going to change Wizard history and keep her powers forever, and Justin spoiled everything.

Like _usual_.

"Alex…" Justin sighs, and right away she hates his tone. This gratingly familiar voice is the one he uses when she's being obtuse (his word), and this particular _'Alex'_ is her name the way he says it when she's brought home low grades in something he's helped her study hard for. This is how he talks to her when she's being stupid.

It kind of really pisses her off.

"Don't 'Alex' me! You talk to me, Justin… JustinVincenzo Pepe Russo!" Practically shouting, she whips out the big guns, using his full name like Mom does when she's so full-on mad that she's about two eyerolls away from killing one of her children, the kind of fury that makes 'irate' look like a happy memory. That gets his attention, at least, because the patronizing smile slides right off his face. _Now _he's listening.

"Don't you even get it?" she shouts. "We could have kept our powers! _All of us_, Justin… You and me would both have powers, and we'd be the same, without any stupid competition to screw everything up, and we wouldn't end up like Dad and Aunt Meghan- they don't even talk on _Christmas, Justin_! We could both keep… We could have… all…

"…kept…" She manages, and then with a hiccough she bursts into tears.

The world must be getting ready to end any minute now, because Alex Russo is crying, her chest hitching so hard that it hurts. Not because she wants something, and not because she's trying to get out of something. It's not even about a boy (well, not any boy who _matters_).

Her shoulders shake with the gut-wrenching force of her sobs, and she puts her hands over her face because she's just so _embarrassed_, and she didn't even plan this or feel it coming, so what the hell? She doesn't understand what's going on but she's pretty sure this is _not_ how this was supposed to go, okay. What she _does_ understand is that she needs to leave the room, RUN, get out of the house, possibly out of the state, leave the country and just never look back, change her name, go underground… But just as she starts to bolt for the door, she feels somebody pulling her back down and oh DAMN it! Every single time!

"Let me go, Justin!" She flails blindly at him, not even caring if she really nails him one, it'd serve him right, and when he catches both of her small hands in one of his big ones and pins them safely against his chest, she puts her face down next to them and sobs like her heart is broken. Which is maybe, probably, definitely the case.

Her brother rubs her back, sliding his palm in slow circles, up and down. He's massaging the place between her shoulder blades, telling her it's going to be okay. Soothing her. Fixing things.

(Fixing Alex.)

(Like _usual_. DAMN.)

They stay like that until the storm passes. Her tears don't last forever… there's a limit. Alex makes a point of wiping both her eyes and her nose on his ugly shirt.

"So stupid… Justin…" she hiccups when she can talk again. There's no real venom behind the words. She's frankly exhausted, every bit as worn out as she used to be after the out-of-control tantrums of her childhood, back before she'd learned there were better ways to get his attention. Which was probably the last time he'd held her like this. Not that it matters, or anything.

Alex buries her face in Justin, her wet eyes and the swollen tip of her nose in the place between his neck and shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. She didn't notice when he let go of her hands, isn't sure why she stopped trying to kill him.

"Easy," Justin murmurs, feigning a gagging sound. "If you strangle me now, you won't even get to enjoy it," he coughs.

She lifts her head to see he's becoming purple. So, maybe not feigning after all, then – whoops. She eases up on him but doesn't let go. She tucks her head under his chin, and he runs his fingers through her hair.

"Are you even gonna tell me?" she breathes.

Justin heaves another longsuffering sigh, squeezing her. She waits.

"Fine," he murmurs, the word absent of its usual snark. "Fine, Alex, you want to know why?" He leans down and puts his mouth right up against her ear, which sort of makes her shiver.

He whispers, "The distributor… has… backups."

She looks up to frown at him. Justin looks back steadily.

"But that means… it wouldn't have worked," she says, bewildered. She understands he's getting at something, some subtext she's missed, but she's not quite there yet.

He nods, seriously. "That's what it means," he says. "Keep your voice down."

Alex's expression goes a little slack as her eyes dim and her wheels grind so hard they're practically audible. " But that means… that means…

She sits up so hard that she nearly clips her brother under the chin. But he pulls back just in time. Grinning.

"Justin Vincenzo Pepe _Russo_," she breathes out, and there's awe in her voice.

Okay, NOW she's caught up.

"You knew it wasn't going to work," she whispers, her words soft with shock. "You knew it wasn't going to work, and that's why you kept her…us… from trying to overload the power distributor. Because if we'd gone ahead with it…"

"You would have had the entire Wizard World on top of you before you knew what was happening," he nods as he finishes for her, looking into her eyes. "And next time, they'd be watching for it. There'd be no surprise in the attack. No chance of success," he kisses her forehead, brushing her bangs aside. "…No Rebellion."

"When were you gonna _tell_ me you were on board with this!" She's shouting and whispering at the same time, which makes her throat ache. She's ticked off and more than a little hurt, but excited and impressed as hell, too. It's… confusing. A complicated feeling.

Justin raises an eyebrow. "Because it worked out so well with you and Stevie?" The sarcasm is evident in his voice.

"That was different," she mutters, unconvincing and unconvinced. He just looks at her.

"How did you figure out about the distributor anyway?" she asks after a beat, suspicious. Justin gives her his let's-not-be-stupid look again, and man she _hates_ that look.

"It's amazing," he whispers, pressing his lips to her ear again, "how much you can find out on the Internet."

"Yeah, could you stop doing that?" Alex asks in a normal voice. "I get that we're all top-secret and stuff, but it kind of makes me feel funny."

Justin smirks at her. This time, he threads his long fingers through her hair, holding it back from her face, and presses his cheek to hers. So, not helping.

"Sorry," he whispers, not sounding like it, "but the Lair is almost definitely bugged." She tries to ignore the way her stomach flip-flops.

"TOP-SECRET?" He says in a too-loud voice. "ALEX, you don't have to WHISPER if you want to TELL ME ABOUT YOUR…" he falters, "…BOYFRIENDS," he finishes, lamely.

Wow, so he's pretty much the worst sneak improviser in the history of _ever_? They're totally gonna have to work on that if Justin's gonna go all "secret agent" now.

At least it gives her a chance to give _him _the 'what are you, an idiot?' look, for a change. "Sorry, Justin," she responds, smooth as silk and without any of his crappy dead-give-away theatrics. "I guess I just didn't want anyone to overhear us, because my… _boyfriends," _she says with special emphasis, because seriously, how lame was that, "are so much cooler than you'll ever be, and I wouldn't want you to feel embarrassed, you know, if someone overheard." She uses her sweet-little-girl voice and bats her eyelashes at him, enjoying herself for the first time since she came in here.

He glares.

Alex slides out of his lap and totally doesn't take note of his dorky expression of disappointment, or the answering tug in her chest. With the false cheer still in her voice, she says, "But, you're probably right. Let's go talk about it in your room."

The way his expression brightens is harder to ignore. But she hoists him up by one hand and pulls him out of the Lair and up the stairs, to find a place where they'll be able to talk about this newest secret between them. They need to sort out what this means, and figure out what happens next. Together, they're going to have to face whatever darkness the future may hold. But they've never really done it any other way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **Alternate Endings: Wizard for a Day

**Fandom: **Wizards of Waverly Place

**Word Count: 2,952**

**Rating/Content: **PG. I think this one's pretty clean, with the exception of fairly mild, implied sibcest. Always, always with the implied sibcest. Isn't that what we're doing here? Now with bonus aliens! **Jalex.**

**Spoilers/episodes: **Wizard for a Day (didn't you read the title?)

**Beta(s): **I lucked out - _Two_ amazing writers helped me out with this one, and I'm pretty sure it's the best chapter yet. There's really no substitute for having someone help you smooth down your rough edges, is there?

**TheWolfHourx (aka xUsexSomebodyx) **saves me (constantly) from shifting POV like an ADHD kid on Red Bull bender – along with pointing out numerous other monstrosities that you don't have to hurt your eyeballs with because she's already given me a stern talking to. Go check out her fun and smutty (yes) fic **The Bad Alex**_**, **_if you haven't already.

**mktoddsparky **is responsible for the revisions that engineered a pretty amazing shift in tone that took this story where it wanted to go, when I couldn't figure it out myself. And a thousand subtle edits that showed me what it was I was trying to do. Her Jalex fic** par après avs yeux** is beautifully written, wonderfully angst-driven, and well worth your time.

**Disclaimer:** I don't Wizards of Waverly Place, or anything else that might look familiar. Weird – I thought five stories and a handful of near-misses at plagiarism would give me copyright for _sure!_

* * *

><p><strong>Summary:<strong>

_"Listen up, earthlings! We have come to your street because we have heard that the Milky Way Milkshake Machine has been brought back . We have always believed that the milky way milkshake machine is the tastiest milkshake machine in the entire universe. Now that the machine is back up and running, we want it."_

_"And we intend to get it."_

-Alien Leader in Wizard for a Day, WOWP

* * *

><p>"<em>NOT THE MILKSHAKE MACHINE!"<em>

Throwing himself in front of the legendary Milky Way Milkshake Machine ™, Jerry Russo shields it with his body. Undeterred, the aliens advance, their antennae quivering ever so slightly in anticipation. Their silver spacesuits seem to glitter as they reflect the Sub-station's dim lighting.

Jerry Russo's eyes dart from side to side, seeking help from any quarter. Theresa huddles behind the counter. Alex and Max are curled beside her, their faces pale with fright. Justin stands by the entrance to the Sub-Station on the opposite side of the room, cradling a scavenged piece of Alien technology in his palms and looking at a loss as to what to do.

"Please," Jerry gulps. The tips of the Alien weapons begin to spark.

Jerry isn't sure whether he's pleading with his family or the aliens... or maybe he's just lamenting the wild collision of circumstance and magical shenanigans (read: Alex) that brought them to this point. Either way, Jerry Russo doesn't know what else to do.

He's exhausted every option. He'd already offered to exchange the one-of-a-kind machine for his youngest son, which he feels was more than generous. Sadly, Max had not only failed spectacularly as a milkshake machine substitute, but had subsequently refused to fight the invaders either, apparently holding a grudge. (Which is unfair, since he's clocked more experience with video game aliens that anyone else in the room.)

Theresa is no help at all, too preoccupied with protecting the kids to worry about what's _really _important. Justin looks torn between crying and running away. Even Alex's stunned expression suggests that she's in no shape to try and manipulate their way out of this one. Jerry Russo is the last thing standing between the most epic of all milkshake machines, and the Aliens. Clearly, he's going to die.

He just wishes he'd taken the time to prepare some last words.

The aliens advance, silver weapons trained steadily on him.

"Move away from the machine," the head alien growls, taking a threatening step forward and pointing his gun at Jerry's forehead.

"Please!" Jerry pleads, tongue stumbling over his words as the other aliens aim their guns at his face. "Uh, give m-me… milkshakes, or give me dea—"

"Very well," the head alien sneers, clicking a switch on his gun and beginning to press his finger down on the trigger. Jerry closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Wait!"

Everything stops. Justin freezes mid-lurch, the gun shivering in his hand. Theresa slaps a hand over her mouth and peeks from around the corner.

The blonde alien woman from whom the injunction has come clasps her leader's upper arm, urgently. "Mjorab, wait!"

He turns, impatient. "What, Rose? I'm trying to destroy some earth creatures here, in case you haven't noticed?" He gestures broadly with his gun-thing and those standing in its arc duck, including both Russo men and several Aliens.

Rose's fingers slam down on the barrel of Mjorab's gun and push it toward the floor, earning her a fiery glare.

"Did you want the milkshake machine or not?" Mjorab cries exasperatedly, yanking the gun away from her grasp. "If I recall correctly, you were the one who insisted we make this trip in the first place!"

Behind them, Alex rolls her eyes.

"Mjorab, this machine isn't a true thing," Rose snaps, sighing in relief as her leader pauses. "I see now why it was giving such odd, inconsistent signals on our tracking device. The milkshake machine is _conjured_, brother. These earthlings aren't ordinary…they are wizards!"

The small, dark-haired leader stares intently at Rose for a long moment. Something silent passes between them and Rose nods, smiling slightly.

Mjorab spins, leveling the weapon at Jerry's chest. "Is this true, human?"

"Uh," Jerry says, unable to switch gears quickly enough to decide if admitting to magic is a good idea or a bad one. He's still trembling.

"Yes, yes, it's true!" Alex pipes up, apparently having regained her powers of speech. She rises from her crouched position and comes around the counter, ignoring her mother's hissed warning. "We're all…" Alex continues, pausing for dramatic effect and spreading her hands to include the family, the redecorated sandwich shop, and the milkshake machine. "…Wizards!"

Theresa makes a grab for her daughter, but her fingers skate off the shining skirt of the ridiculous space café costume Alex is wearing, closing on nothing but air. Jerry watches helplessly as his daughter's eyes make a quick circuit around the room, taking stock of the situation in that sharp way she has. For a moment the middle Russo child looks almost sobered, but then a conniving smile spreads across her lips. She turns to the bemused aliens.

"So, as you can plainly see, the Milky Way Milkshake Machine ™, is of no use to you… in fact, it probably won't last much longer than a day or two, since it came out of Merlin's Hat," Alex insists, her smile beaming mockingly at them. "So, we're really sorry for the misunderstanding, how about a round of sandwiches on the house? No use starting a long road trip back to space with empty stomachs!" Jerry flinches at the offer of free food, but nobody pays any attention to him.

Rose and the other two alien sidekicks begin to mumble enthusiastically as they eye the overhead menu board, but Mjorab doesn't join in. All the Russos watch as he stands still for a second, head cocked to the side as he stares at Alex. Finally his eyes light up.

"Whoa!" cries Mjorab, unprofessionally. He slaps his hands together in excitement. "You guys have Merlin's Hat?" He seems just a little too overjoyed for this to be a good thing.

Alex blanches. "Um," she says. "No?" She looks to Justin for help, bypassing Jerry completely. He doesn't mind; he has more than enough to worry about as it is. And, he's used to it.

Justin comes to life, jolting out of his stupor. "Oh! Well…uh, you see," he contributes, helpfully. Alex grimaces, and the Aliens look unconvinced. She makes frantic "move it along" hand gestures at him, while the Aliens aren't looking at her.

"Right! Well, um, we had it," he stammers, his eyes flicking helplessly between the interlopers and his little sister, "But, we uh…used it. Yeah…that." He nods emphatically, seeming to finally agree with himself. "Yeah, Alex here," he points to her, "used it to wish for the machine, so after today it's useless and will probably vanish back to wherever magic things go. Yup."

Alex offers a weak smile. "Right. So, sorry to waste your time and all..."

The alien called Rose takes Mjorb by the arm again, pulling him away from the group and off to one side, in order to command his full attention. There's something familiar about the practiced, possessive gesture, but Jerry can't quite put his finger on it; only that the room seems to heat up every time the two aliens look at one another.

"The Wizards are correct," Rose says, "the machine will be of no use to us."

"Unless," one of the alien sidekicks butts in, "we have the hat…"

"…and," Mjorab finishes smoothly, "the Wizard." His expression brightens considerably. He looks at Alex, stroking his chin. She shivers.

Rose smiles.

There's an uneasy silence, as the implications sink in... and immediately, all eyes fall on Justin. Even Jerry, who's supposed to be in charge of the family, looks to see what he'll do.

(Later, forced by his furious wife explain _why_, Jerry will say, "He was the closest", and "He's the oldest brother and the oldest wizard", and even, desperately, "But he had that gun thingy!")

(What he won't say is: "He loves Alex the most.")

"Yes," Mjorab croons, stalking purposefully towards Alex and reaching for her hand. "That could work." She jerks away from him, her eyes begging her brother for help.

"Don't give us any trouble, kid," warns Mjorab, trying to intimidate Justin, successfully. The oldest Russo sibling pales, taking a step backwards and very nearly tripping over table 4.

"We're just going to take the girl, the hat, and the milkshake machine, and we'll be on our way." The dark-haired leader trains his gun on Alex, face emotionless.

Justin hesitates, and Alex's eyes darken, smoldering with a total lack of forgiveness for even those two brief seconds of uncertainty.

"You can keep the cap-pistol, if you want," offers the alien who'd dropped it earlier. He hurries over to Jerry's side and picks the hat up off the floor, tucking it into one of the hidden pouches of his silver suit.

Justin gives the shiny alien toy a loving, longing look, spinning it in the air and catching it again, like a child pretending to be a cowboy.

Alex's expression grows cold. _"Justin,"_ she warns.

Justin won't make eye contact, admiring the shimmery alien gun instead. He brushes his thumb across the smooth, bright metal, gives it another fond twirl… and tucks it into his belt.

"Cool with me," Justin says.

Alex's face crumples, but then grows fierce. She makes a run for it but Rose is faster. As the blonde blocks her path, Mjorab's hand latches around her wrist and he yanks her towards him mercilessly.

Max and Jerry breathe sighs of numb relief, Justin stands rooted to the spot, and Theresa begins to shout in frantic Spanish at all of them.

The two alien sidekicks point their weapons at the milkshake machine, surrounding it with a humming, flickering glow. It levitates itself out the door and into the street, dragging on the pavement as they struggle with the guns. Finally it grinds to a stop under the spaceship and is sucked right up into the maw of the metal giant.

Rose and Mjorab drag a struggling, protesting, biting Alex between them, paying her little attention as they exchange a comfortable, antagonistic banter that's obviously as familiar as a worn-in pair of… er, antennae.

"Who's the best space-captain EVER?" Mjorab preens. With the hand that's not locked around the Wizard-girl's wrist, he cocks a thumb proudly at his chest, grinning. _"That's_ right. _This_ guy."

Rose quirks an eyebrow to let him know she's unimpressed, pivoting smoothly to intercept Alex's fist as she nearly jerks free, then pins it behind her back, forcing it high enough to make the girl wince. "Right, after you almost let her go?" she grunts, yanking the arm up until their quarry gives in and begins to walk with them, instead of being dragged. "Could you please _focus_, Captain Wonderful?"

Mjorab deflates. "You're not supposed to talk to your Captain like that," he practically whines. "It's insubordination."

"What is it if I tell Dad you took the Intercraft without asking?"

"Hey! You promised not to say anything if I got you the-"

"...milkshake machine, right. Which is... trying to... escape!" she snaps, reaching for Alex's other arm, the one she's just managed to free from a distracted Mjorab. "Try to keep up, skogghead!"

"_I'm_ not the one who wanted to stay for sandwiches…"

"Well if you'd stopped like I wanted to…"

They do that all the way into the street. As they're lifted into the spaceship by an invisible force, they're still at it.

While she's being manhandled like groceries, levitated, and thrust through door of their strange silver craft, Alex calls them all a number of names that even Jerry's never heard before...only half of which are in English, and none of which are "sweetheart". And while there's certainly enough to go around, most of her bile is reserved for her big brother Justin. As usual.

After the Aliens have flown away, taking with them the hat, the milkshake machine and Alex, it's eerily quiet in the Sub Station.

"¿Cómo pueda usted?" Theresa asks after a quiet moment. "How could you? She's our baby girl, Jerry."

"Can I have her room?" asks Max.

* * *

><p>The end of the world has come and gone, and it's still Saturday. Justin has already been in his sister's room to get his favorite things back, while Max stealthily moves his own possessions in. Theresa isn't speaking to any of them, but Jerry seems to be steadily bringing her around. After all, hasn't Alex always been the most difficult child in the family?<p>

He's finished his homework – even the extra credit to the extra credit – in record time. Now he's sitting at his desk, tapping his wand against a blank page as he stares at the wall, enjoying the peace and quiet. For the first time that he can remember, there is a total absence of threats to his personal safety.

And he's _not_ feeling lonely.

Justin retrieves Alex's wand from his hip pocket, where he's been keeping it. Constantly.

Just in case.

She didn't take her wand with her. He wonders why she left it, for the millionth time.

And still, he's not feeling lonely.

He stands both wands on their ends, comparing them with his eyes. Hefts them to see which is heavier, twirls them in the air to see which is whippier, which more evenly keeled, which more weighted with magic. (His is, for the record.) He crosses the wands one over the other in a tight X to see how they look together, pulls them to separate sides of the desk to see if they're better apart. Finally, balancing both thin rods together in the palm of his hand, Justin closes his fist around them.

* * *

><p>In his bed, Justin is awake and staring at the wall, even though it's past his self-imposed bedtime. He rolls both wands under his thumb, like worry beads, and then rests them on the nightstand, crossed tightly together so they form an X. It's as if he's waiting for something, but he doesn't know what. What could be more important than the end of the world?<p>

He's almost completely unsurprised when the air beside him flares and begins to shimmer, finally coalescing to form an angry pair of brown eyes, a mane of dark hair, and what has to be the most flattering fit of a silver spacesuit he's ever seen. She looks at him with black anger.

"Nice outfit," Justin says, while his heart does something mostly unexpected inside his chest.

Her eyes narrow. "Well this is your lucky day, dork-face, because I just happen to know where there's one in your size," she snaps.

"My size? Wait, why? What-?" But she's already tossing him a small communications device and a familiar pair of antennae. Briefly, as she flings him the items, Alex eyes the crossed wands on the top of the nightstand. Thankfully, she looks away seconds later; seeming to dismiss whatever it was that had caught her attention.

"Where did you get these?" Justin asks her, waving the antennae in the air.

"Stole them from Mjorab," is Alex's hurried answer, in a tone that implies he should have known. She huffs, "Justin, hurry, we don't have time! I might have started an intergalactic war or whatever and—look, I'll explain on the way. " Her hands tug on his arm, pulling him to his feet. "You're going to need those to breathe on the ship," she says, "and to talk. Put them on. Wands don't work, so don't bother. Now – listen, this is important, Justin! - you have to be sure to go through right after I go through, because once the portal closes, it's going be closed off again for a really long time."

Justin wants to know how long a really long time is, like a week or a day or a million years or what, and he wants to know how one Wizard girl could have started a war in a day's time, and he wants to know why, exactly, any of it is his problem. At the very least, he wants to change out of his pajamas. But the air around them starts to warm and ripple, and the portal slices open next to his sister. She stares at him, and he curses himself for never, ever being able to say no to her.

"_Well?"_

It doesn't sound like a question, not the way she says it. She holds out her hand to him, lips pressed together angrily.

(Well, maybe peace and quiet is overrated.)

With a sigh, Justin slips his hand into hers. Alex steps through the portal into the darkness, and Justin follows close behind her. Stepping through, he looks back just once, to see what he's leaving behind.

The room is spotless and still. Almost, there's no evidence that anyone was ever here at all. Definitely, there's no sign that any important thing has happened. There's a pressure on his hand, and he steps through the door.

The portal closes and winks out, carrying the two children out of one story and into the next.

In the morning there will be discovery; there will be questions and searching and there will probably be tears. But for now, the empty room offers no explanation for their passing; it holds nothing more interesting than an unmade bed, a lonely stack of schoolwork with perfectly straight edges, and two wands abandoned on the nightstand. The two wands are crossed one over the other, harshly slanted at opposing angles, but joined, perfectly, in the center.


	4. Chapter 4: Justin's Little Sister

**Title: **Alternate Endings: Justin's Little Sister

**Fandom: **Wizards of Waverly Place

**Word Count: 4,056**

**Rating/Content: **PG. This one is sweet and fluffy, with nothing more upsetting than some implied sibscest-y crushing and a few tense moments while they're... well, I don't want to spoil the story. Trust me, this one's not that bad. But give it a try anyway, why don't you? **Jalex. **Always, always Jalex.

**Spoilers/episodes: **Justin's Little Sister

**A/N:** Oh, hi! Oh Jalex fanfiction community, I've _missed_ you! Come here, let me kiss each and every one of your pretty little faces!

(Metaphorically speaking.)

After a long dramatic pause, which I can't honestly say I've expected you to notice, I've come home! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find Disney-sanctioned sibling-incest/rivalry/hijinx/true love out there in the world! I hope there are still a few Jalex readers out there. I hope the ones who are left want to hear what my stories have to say. I hope you'll like the chapter. I hope there'll be feedback. I hope there's ice cream left in the freezer, and that it doesn't rain tomorrow. I hope I get a pony.

**Beta(s): **

**TheWolfHourx (aka xUsexSomebodyx) **was exposed to this chapter in an early incarnation, when she helped me sand down some rough edges and kept me from embarrassing myself. We've been working together for a long time, and if you haven't already checked out her (always) fun and (frequently) smutty Jalex fics, you really owe it to yourself.

**CleverforClever**, the lovely and talented fellow Jalex author, reader of my screenwriting hero and all around man of mystery, gave me some much-needed feedback that helped guide this chapter into its final draft. And he's also probably going to murder me in my sleep as punishment for my slow response time, when he realizes that I haven't been exploded or mysteriously vanished. Despite my slow response time, and slower posting, his help has been invaluable. Please, check out his Jalex fiction, if you haven't already.

**Disclaimer:** I don't Wizards of Waverly Place, or anything else that might look familiar. Weird – I thought five stories and a handful of almost-plagarism would give me copyright for sure. Well, live and learn!

**Summary: **

_(Just close your eyes and it won't matter.)_

* * *

><p>"<em>Alex look what you've done, you've ruined my life!"<em>

"_Hold on. You're invisible!_ _Isn't there something you've always wanted to do, Someone you've always wanted to get back and, and they would never know, because you're invisible?"_

_-WOWP, Justin's Little Sister_

* * *

><p>She hadn't meant to do it.<p>

Total accident. Honest.

And okay, sure, she _probably should have known better._ How many times has Alex Russo heard _that_, right? It's just that when other people compare Alex to Justin, it makes her feel small. The thing about having brothers is that people tend to compare you to them. And when the brother is _Justin_? Well, you tend to come up a little short.

Sometimes, Alex gets tired of having an older brother.

So, she makes a wish. There's a Wizard Lesson, there's Genie, it seems like there's a chance for everything to change. And because she's Alex, the wish goes all wrong, everything gets turned around backwards and inside out, and before twenty-four hours have passed, her brother Justin is no longer her brother. In fact, he's no longer anybody at all, because when she tries to fix the wish with another wish she accidentally makes him invisible. _Now, _well, he's not anything?

(She thinks he's overreacting. Just a little.)

When other people compare her to Justin, it makes her smaller somehow, which is bad. But when Justin's not there at all, it's like she doesn't _exist,_ which is way, way worse. It's almost like... well, like she needs him around, just to know who is who and which is which. So as bad as it was, being Justin's little sister? Losing him altogether is way, way worse.

So Alex accidentally turns her brother Invisible, and for the rest of the day she feels weird and unsettled, as if something important is missing. Which, duh. She just disappeared her big brother, and even if he's a total loser, she's kind of used to having him around? It's bigger than just the change in her routine. Alex is learning that she doesn't want to live in a world that doesn't have Justin in it.

It feels as though something vital is missing from Alex herself, an arm or an ear maybe, or maybe some body part that she doesn't know she's lost, but can't quite be complete without, like someone born with a tail or an extra limb or a Siamese twin. Or like maybe she's left the apartment without her wand. Without meaning to, she catches herself stealing glances into the distance all day, like the missing thing is headed her direction, like it's going to come on her suddenly and surprise her. Except she knows what's missing from her life, and where to find it: her missing piece is skulking around the loft by himself, wishing they'd skipped the Genie lesson, worrying about missing school, and getting _super_ pissed. Remind her again why she wants him back?

* * *

><p>"Alex?"<p>

She's sitting in bed when he comes in, propped against the headboard with a blanket tucked in around her knees. She's flipping through her art magazine, not really seeing it. It's late and she's supposed to be asleep, but she's not really tired. It's not that she's anxious about anything, or worried if Justin will ever stop being see-through and whether it will all be her fault, she's _just not sleepy, _okay.

She looks up. "Hi, Justin."

She should be getting used to it, she guesses, but she's weirded out all over again when she can't see his face. She doesn't know where to look.

"How'd you know it was me?"

She rolls her eyes. "None of my _other_ invisible friends stay up this late, Justin. Besides, you always walk on the creaky board like a doofus. I _always _know when it's you. What do you want?"

She hears him fiddling with the door handle, rattling it back and forth. When he's nervous or embarrassed, Justin fiddles with things. It's like he has way too much energy in his skinny body, and he can't possibly be expected keep it still. "Do you think... do you think maybe I could stay with you? You know, in here? It's, it's sort of lonely being invisible...?"

Justin wants to sleep in her room? Her surprise must show on her face, because he starts to take it back: "Uh, actually, you know what? It was probably a dumb idea anyway, and so I'm just gonna-"

"No!" she squawks, surprised by the urgency in her own voice. Well, but it's kind of her fault? And, she doesn't want him to feel bad? Also, she doesn't want to have to worry about running into him all the time. "Justin, it's fine. Okay? You can stay here, no problem."

When he doesn't answer, she begins to wonder if he's already gone. The idea that she might have sent him away (again), and that she won't even be able to _find_ him this time, not unless he wants to be found, makes her stomach swarm with nervous butterflies.

"You sure?" he says, at last. Alex nods in the direction of the voice.

"Yeah." She hesitates, then smiles toward where she thinks he is. "It'll be like when we were little. You remember?"

"Camping out?" She thinks she can hear the smile in his voice, too.

"Yeah." She's full-on grinning now. "In the basement, and we'd make those forts? Mom used to let us take popcorn and stuff down, remember?" She frowns. "She wouldn't let us make s'mores, though."

Justin coughs. "Not after the incident with the camp stove, Alex."

Alex bristles. "That was _one_ time! And we extinguished it before it did any serious damage!"

"_Who_ extinguished it?"

She sighs. Invisible or not, Justin is still a pain. Seriously, he brought this on himself. "Fine, _you did_. But it was totally my idea to have you there when I started setting stuff on fire. I knew you'd be able to take care whatever I did. You're practically the safety police."

"I am not! Lots of people camp with a fire extinguisher!"

"Whatever you say, officer." She grins. "Whatever, you're totally my plan B."

"Lucky me." She can hear the smile in his voice though. She feels the bed dip a little as he sits down on it. "So," he says, fingertips drumming on something… the edge of the bed?... "...we're camping out?"

Decisively, Alex nods. "Yep. It'll be just like when we were kids." She grins, "And because I'm nice, I'll let you leave the night-light on and everything!"

"Hey! I don't sleep with a..." he begins, then sort of trails off. (He SO does.)

She tries to smirk at him, out of habit, except there's this thing where taunting someone you can't see is harder than she would have guessed. She looks down at her magazine, instead, pretending like that was what she had in mind all along.

"Well," Justin volleys, now she's given him time to work on his comeback, "at least I'm not the one who talks in her sleep."

Alex scowls. "That was only a couple of times, and I told you, I had bad dreams!"

"Yeah," says Justin, "and nightmares make you violent. I thought you were going to kick me to death before I could wake you up!"

"I'm not sure the _dreams_ were the reason for _that,"_ Alex mutters, tossing a couple of pillows on the floor, and following them with her two thickest blankets, untangling herself from the sheets as she prepares to hop down and join them.

"What are you doing?" Justin's disembodied voice asks, before she can.

"Um, duh, I'm building a fort? We just went over this?"

"We said camping, not building a—"

"_You _said camping, _I _said fort. Potato-tomato. Hand me that pillow by the wall, will you?"

"But Alex..."

"But nothing, Justin. Or did you think we were both gonna sleep in this tiny bed? Because if so? I'm telling you now, not happening."

"But Alex..."

"God, _what!_" she snaps. He makes being nice so much work, this must be why she never does it. "I'm helping you, here! You're the one who wanted to have a sleepover!"

"Hey, keep it down!" he advises her. "You don't want Mom and Dad to hear you talking to yourself, do you? …Anyway, if mom sees all this in the morning, won't she be, you know, suspicious?"

She rolls her eyes. "Of what, that I built a fort with my invisible brother? In case you haven't noticed, I do weirder stuff than fort-building all the freakin' time, and don't even get me started on the crap Max gets away with! Not to mention the fact that you don't exist, so that part's not gonna be a big-" Oh, wait. _Damn.  
><em>  
>She doesn't need to be able to look at his face to know she's hurt his feelings, the charge in the air going from regular to sulky in two seconds flat. "Look, I didn't mean that," she tells one of the pillows she's still holding. "I just, I'm sort of on edge or whatever, okay?" Without giving him time to enjoy her confession, she rushes ahead, trying to make things better. "Besides, I mean, how could they be mad even if they knew? What is there to be mad about? It's not like you're a regular boy. You're my <em>brother<em>. And even if you weren't, you're invisible, so it's not like there's gonna be… you know. Boy-girl stuff. Or, like there _would._ You know, if you weren't my brother. Which you are." Smooth. Her face feels hot, so she rushes on even faster, trying to fix _that. _"At worst, Mom will get ticked off because the pillows are all on the floor." Alex stops for breath, and thinks maybe she'll quit while she's ahead.

The air in front of her heaves this heavy, put-upon sigh that she knows by heart. Even though she can't see it, she can practically _hear_ Justin making his 'my sister is an idiot' face. _"Alex,_" he scoffs, proving her right, "your logic is flawed on both points." The bedsprings twinge a little, she thinks he's moved closer. "First, I'm invisible, not incorporeal. "

"Corporal who?"

She hears him sigh. "No, in-cor-por-eal. It means that I still have a body. Just, you know. You can't see it. I can still do stuff.."

"Oh," she says. Then, "What's the other thing? You said both things were wrong?"

But Justin's quiet. _Uncharacteristically _quiet. He's quiet for so long that she's gripped with the sudden and breathtaking fear that he's disappeared _altogether._The thought makes her heart bang against her ribcage in a hollow, hurting way, so she seizes her pillow and swats at the air in front of her, swinging it in a wide arc.

There's an immensely satisfying thwack as it connects. "Ow!" yells Justin, "Hey!" and Alex is washed with relief.

"Shhh!" she hisses, grinning giddily. "Mom and Dad will _hear_you!"

She can't see his expression, but imagines his grey eyes narrowing to slits as he glares daggers, his jaw tightening with tension as he tries to figure out how to get back at her. Alex giggles as she pictures him, basking in the warm pleasure of Justin's (invisible) disapproval. Which is probably why she's caught completely off guard by his attack: with no more warning that the slight creak of complaining bedsprings, she's flat on her back, the wind driven out of her.

"Ugh! God, Justin, you're heavy! Get _off!" _She feels the pressure of his knees on either side of her hips, his body weight pressing her down into the mattress. The fact that she can't see him is _maddening._(And maybe, also, kind of… exciting? No, that can't possibly be right.)

"Make me!" He whisper-shouts gleefully. His fingers glide over her rib cage, prodding and poking until she's gasping with laughter.

Gulping for air, she pants, "Quit…it... Justin!" She wriggles beneath him, shoving at his legs and squirming desperately in an attempt to free herself, but it's really, really hard to get out from under an invisible assailant. He catches one of her flailing wrists and pins it to the mattress above her head, and hey, it turns out Justin's pretty strong, for a nerd. (Who knew?) Feeling his weight shift, it occurs to Alex that she's been using the wrong tactic. She drives her other hand into the air where his belly must be, quick before be can catch hold of that one too, and now Justin's the one paralyzed by laughter. She feels him convulsing with it as his grip weakens, then he's falling off of her. She feels as much as hears him hit the blanket-covered mattress next to her, and they're both laughing and warm and heaving for breath.

And he's still holding her hand.

When she gets her breath back, Alex asks, "What was the second thing?"

"Second thing?" Justin says, his voice cracking, like he doesn't know what she's talking about.

"You said there were two things that made me wrong, Dorkus."

"Uh, well," he says, still sounding winded. "The other thing is," he coughs, "the part about me being your brother."

It's like her heart stops for a second. "What?"

"Uh," he says. "Well, I mean. Right now, you don't _have_an older brother.? Mom and Dad said so? Right? So I'm not...?"

Ohhh.

She gets what he's saying.

(Awkward.)

She rolls over onto her stomach, but manages to keep hold of his fingers. It's still comforting somehow, to have proof that he's still tangible and close. She's rubbing small, restless circles on his palm with the ball of her thumb, and he lets her do it without pulling away.

"So you're saying," she murmurs, working through it in her head, "that if they knew you were in here having a sleepover, Mom and Dad would be right to be, like, not okay with it, because technically…"

"...I'm not your brother." He finishes for her. "But only technically!" he's quick to add.

"So if ..." she can't finish the thought. "…If we…" Nope, still can't finish. "...then it wouldn't count?" she whispers, trusting Justin, as always, to read her mind.

"...Right," he croaks, coming through on the whole mind-reading thing.

(_Isn't there something you've always wanted to do?)_

With her heart beating in her throat, she whispers, "But if you're not my brother right now... then it wouldn't count."

"I guess not," says Justin, who sounds like he's out of breath again.

"But that's... silly," she says, a little breathless herself. "I mean, that we're even talking about it. Because, well. It just is. Isn't it?"

"Yeah," says Justin's voice, strained. "...Silly."

In the tightly-stretched silence that follows, she's suddenly not holding his hand anymore, there's a shuffling on the bed, and Alex frowns into the place she'd last thought he was. "What are you...?"

Her top sheet lies scrunched at the foot of the bed, where she'd left it when she first meant to get up, but now it whips itself off the bed, and begins to meticulously drape itself from the bedpost and the back of a chair.

"You said you wanted to make a fort," says Justin, a little too exuberant. He sounds almost excited about it: what a dork. Like maybe he's glad to have something to do. (Or possibly, to not have to talk about _that_anymore.)

Alex lets Sir Dorks-a-lot do all the work (obviously), watching with her hands folded behind her head as the flowered bed sheet transforms itself into a makeshift tent hanging from two bedposts and a couple chairs. It's not bad. Pretty good, actually.

Once the sheet is secured and the pillows placed, Alex deigns to slide off the bed and crawl inside. She moves with more than usual care, so she won't crash into her brother. She looks around with appreciation. "Not a complete waste of time, I guess..." she admits.

Justin snorts. "Like you could've done better? Please, this is a fortress."

"Hey, you've had practice!" she protests. "Before when we were little, you always had to have everything _just so_– it was like camping with Martha Stewart. " She reaches for a blanket. "That's why I always let you do it."

"Yeah, _that's_why," Justin grumbles, from the other side of the artfully draped sheet. There's no real spite in his voice though, not that she expected any. Justin's always done the hard stuff, always grumbled about it, and she just figures he always will. Alex flops contentedly onto her back, looking through the canopy of pink flowers at the overhead light. There's a soft click as Justin turns it out, rendering everything as invisible as he is, until her eyes begin to adjust. There's streetlight shining through the window, and that's almost enough.

She hears feet rustling on carpet, sees the "tent flap" lift and fall, then watches his pillow form an indent where his head should go. Alex misses looking at Justin - not that she'd admit it, or anything. She's just used to him. He's like a part of her that she never even noticed until it was gone. She wonders if she's looking into his eyes, or staring up his nose, or maybe gazing meaningfully at the back of his head. She folds onto her side, propping her head on her palm as she (probably?) faces him. "No nightlight?"

"It's not that dark," says Justin's voice. "Your room faces the street more than mine, so with the curtains open, you don't really need a—"

"It was an accident," Alex says quietly.

"What?"

She looks down at the blanket. "Sometimes I feel like _I'm_ invisible," she adds, talking soft because she's embarrassed, but fast because saying it at all suddenly seems like it might have been a bad idea. "Anyway… I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it, Justin." _I'm sorry_ isn't really part of Alex Russo's vocabulary, but isn't this close enough? It's going to have to be, because she's not going to be able to say all that again.

She looks up at him out of habit, disoriented all over again when she can't gauge his response by his eyes. For once, Alex Russo has no idea what her brother Justin is thinking. When she hears him moving, she tries to imagine he's mirroring her position, propping up to look at her.

He says, "Seriously, Alex?" in this flat tone, and her heart sinks. _Justin doesn't believe her._

Then he says, "You? How could you ever possibly be invisible? Or feel that way? You... you're the exciting one. You're _Alex Russo._You don't think I'd give anything to be like that?" Then, because even when he's see-through he's still Justin, he adds, "Minus the chronic safety hazards and the illegal activity, obviously."

Alex rolls her eyes. "You're ruining it," she smiles. But when he takes her hand again, she lets him. It's sort of comforting.

It goes quiet in her bedroom, after that. Only it's a nice kind of quiet, full of good feelings, and relief. _And it's a quiet that has Justin in it. _She starts to think maybe he's gone to sleep. Then, out of the quiet and out of nowhere, Justin says, "So, if anything happened, like, you know, boy-girl stuff… that'd be weird…" and her heart starts to race again.

"…Weird," echoes Alex, squeezing his hand.

"But you know, if you wanted to, kind of, curl up with me?" says Justin, sort of soft and breathless. "So you won't have nightmares, I mean. I guess that… wouldn't be weird?"

Alex grins to herself. "So you won't be afraid of the dark, is that what you're saying?"

"Oh, you _wish_!"

This feels good, teasing him like this, trading insults; it feels like _them._ And it's not a bad idea, sleeping curled up against her big brother Justin, a bulwark against bad dreams. She thinks it might be a good idea, maybe even a _great_ idea. But for some reason... she can't seem to move. At all. She's stuck. Frozen. It's because of the whole invisible thing, she tells herself. She imagines reaching for his arms, sees the two of them lying in Justin's fort under her blankets and a sheet tent, playing campout just like when they were little but different now, different somehow in a good way, with her back against his front, their spines making nested C's while he holds her... but she can't figure out how to start. She has no idea how to start. How do you reach for something, when you're not even sure where it is?

What she tells Justin is, "Um, but I can't _see _you?"

"Oh!" he says, as if that was news to either of them. "Right. Well, but I can see you."

"So?"

"So," he says, "I'll do it, okay? I can see _you,_Alex. Just... You know, c'mere?"

She feels his hands close on her upper arms, feels him gently tugging her closer until she's pressed right up against the comforting solidity of him, so real and non-vanished. The dizzying sense of emptiness that's been stalking her recedes a little bit.

He holds her without talking, his arms around her back. She can feel the dull throb of his heartbeat. "Justin?" she asks quietly.

"Hm?" He sounds sleepy.

"I'm _scared,"_she whispers.

She feels him breath in, breath out.

"So'm I," he says. "But we'll be okay. We'll fix it."

Alex Russo tightens her arms around her brother. She wonders, briefly, if she'll be able to let go of him later on, when she has to. And if it will hurt. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he says, sounding more confident. His invisible hand strokes her hair. "It's us, after all. Right?"

_Us. _In the safety of his arms, with all her missing pieces back in place, something breaks loose, and the panic she's been holding at bay threatens to rise up into her throat, filling her voice with tears. "But I can't _see _you, Justin!" What if… what if things stay like this?"

She feels him squeeze her, then his hand is in her hair again. She feels his cheek nuzzle the top of her head, and she closes her eyes before they get her in trouble. "Then… it won't matter, Alex. We'll make a fort every night if we have to. You'll just close your eyes, and it won't be any different. It won't matter, because I can see _you_."

She wonders if that's enough. Her chest feels like she can't get any air in it. "Are you sure?"

He tucks his chin against the top of her head and pulls the blanket up, enveloping her completely. "Try it."

"Try what?"

"Close your eyes. "

(Holding onto him, she does.)


	5. Chapter 5: Delinquent Justin

**Title: **Alternate Endings: Delinquent Justin

**Fandom: **Wizards of Waverly Place

**Word Count: **

**Rating/Content: Jalex. PG to PG-13 for sibling incest (mainly implied), a few bad words, and unsupervised use of magic. **

**Summary: **

The one where Alex accidentally ended up with two Justins at once. What could possibly go wrong?

**Spoilers/episodes: Delinquent Justin **

**A/N: **This was written for the episode where Alex clones Justin, sends him away to college, and tells him that now he doesn't have to leave. (_Tell_ me Jalex isn't canon!). I always kind of wondered what would have happened if she'd kept both of him around.

Also… this is kind of a first draft. I'm sorry. I think it might still fun to read.

**Disclaimer:** I don't Wizards of Waverly Place, or anything else that might look familiar. Damn, right?

* * *

><p>It's been weird, trying to get used to seeing Harper and Justin together.<p>

Well, not _Justin-_Justin. Harper and the _other_ Justin: College Justin, she likes to call him. The original Justin is, quite indisputably, hers, and god help the man or woman who tries to suggest otherwise. Even _Harper _wouldn't dare. Neither would Justin. _Either _of him.

Things have changed quite a bit, since Justin's clone came home from College. Justin and Harper, naturally, had bitched and moaned and wanted her to put the two Justins back together. As if it were that easy, as if they were parts of a puzzle that would make a whole person when the fit was just right. No, Original Justin and College Justin were whole, separate people... it just wouldn't work.

(Besides, she'd never learned how. But why bring that up? "Reckless" is such an ugly word!)

He'd been given a room, and more-or-less accepted by the family. And with two Justins around, it was only a matter of time before Harper resumed trying to get one of them. And Alex was _happy_ for them, really... it was just _weird. _Seeing them together was... well, _horrible_, at first. That led to a week or so of really black moods, which led to a frank conversation with Justin-the-first about her exact motives for creating a copy of him.

_I guess I thought that... maybe you'd stay with me forever, or something?_

Alex had been more scared than she ever had in her life, saying those words. And Justin had just, well, _melted._

The rest, as they say, was history.

Thing was, it didn't make the seeing Harper and C!Justin together any less weird. Alex would be just minding her own business, wandering downstairs to see what was on TV, or going into the kitchen to fix a snack, and there they'd be: all wrapped around each other, giggling and making out, often stoned into the bargain. Even stumbling on them as they cuddled on the couch made her feel awkward: _get a room!_ She wanted to say.

But unless she was in the mood for a lecture on the beauty of love and how much it would help her to "chill out and feel the flow, mamcita", she didn't say it. Besides, Harper's room was in her own basement and just... Gross. The idea of Justin and Harper together still made her stomach twist in a way she didn't like. She refuses to name the emotion that rises from her stomach into her throat at that thought, ugly and choking and dark. And if she ignores it... it isn't there. Right?

It's not that she blames Harper – honestly, she wants her be happy and all that junk. But, come _on. _Does Alex have to watch it happen? She's taken to hiding in the Lair to escape them, charming the door open and then locking it behind her. It beats feeling like a voyeur in her own living room, at least. She doesn't like it, but she guesses it's just one of those things.

* * *

><p>Justin is lounging on the sofa in the Lair, thumbing through a book of magic, when Alex comes in, looking all kinds of pissed. He can't help but notice she's wearing the skirt he likes.<p>

"Hey Alex," he offers casually, as his eyes return to her face. He lifts a hand to her without putting down his textbook.

"Oh, save it," she grumps. Justin fishes out his bookmark and slides it between the vellum pages.

"Something wrong?" he asks. He takes her in carefully: flushed face, lips pressed together, frown denting her perfect features. He checks his watch, and sure enough, the Silent Film Festival was over about an hour ago. He calculates that Harper and College Justin have been home for about twenty-five minutes… and now his sympathy threatens to become something else entirely as he smirks at his sister. "They're at it again, huh?"

Alex scowls, slamming magical paraphernalia around on the long worktable. "I _hate_ College Justin!"

"You know what I think..."

She sighs. "Shut _up._"

He puts the book down on the table and raises his eyebrows at her, only slightly condescending in his tone. "You know I'm right, Alex..."

"What did I _say?_ Shut UP, Justin!"

He feels his smile grow self-satisfied. "You. Are. Jealous."

"What? No I'm not! That's just stupid, okay!" she explodes. "He's not even a real person!"

"Actually," Justin, corrects her, warming to the topic, "He is. At first, when you created him, he was like a part of me... but now he's been altered through experiences I'll never have, and by dint of making decisions of his own, creating his own value system, and struggling to establish an identity in much the same way children do... Et voila! Separate, fully functioning person."

He ducks as Alex lobs a spellbook at him. "He's weird! And you _don't _sound French!"

Once, that would have been enough to shut him down, or at the very least to draw him into a whole different kind of argument. But things have changed an awful lot since the night Alex came clean about her motivation for cloning him in first place: _I couldn't stand to lose you like that, Justin_._ I thought if you didn't have to leave for college… maybe you'd stay with me forever, or something?_ It _still _feels like something out of a dream he's having, and might wake up from. Sixteen years of living in Alex-induced chaos, splitting his time evenly between being afraid for her and being afraid _of_ her, entrenching himself in denial, and she undoes it in thirty seconds' time. It had been just one simple confession, but it was more enough to turn his entire life around 180 degrees. Yeah, Alex tends to have that effect on people.

In light of the (cough) new dynamic between them, the opportunity to call her out on this is just too, too delicious, and he's not about to pass it up.

"Sooome-one is jeaaaalous," he hums childishly, obviously having picked up a few bad habits during the long hours he spends around Alex now.

Alex throws herself into a chair, facing away from him, and fumes.

"It's only natural," Justin pretends to soothe her, being new to the whole 'upper hand' thing, and not yet having learned just when he should stop. "I mean," he sighs, stretching and preening a little, "I am pretty irresistible and all." He looks at her, but she's trying to glare a hole into the wall. Seeing he's failed to get a rise, he pushes even harder. "Look how many of me it takes just to satisfy the women in my life," he gloats, finally succeeding in setting Alex off.

"Oh! That is IT."

Bouncing to her feet, Alex advances on him. The 'old Justin' in him cringes away from the heat in her eyes, but this new ability to drive Alex right up the wall is just too good. _(So, that's what it feels like!) _Idly, he wonders if she's capable of a conniption, and whether he's enjoy seeing one. He thinks the answer might be yes to both.

Planting a hand on either side of him, she pushes her face close to his. Justin is familiar with the gesture, Alex invading his personal space to make a point, but normally she does it in a slightly different context. "You know what _I_ think," she growls, _"I _ think that he's _exactly_ like you, Justin." Her gaze is scalding.

Huh? Well that's not what he was expecting. "What? You've gotta be kidding me! No way is that... that college weirdo like me in any way!"

She shakes her head, slowly. "Nope. I'm right. He's, like... " she bites her lip as if deep in thought, and Justin's eyes are drawn to her mouth. "He's like your subconscious desires, you know? Yeah. Subconscious desires." (Apparently, Alex has picked up a few things from him, too. But that's hardly surprising. Justin understands that she's smarter than most people think, and it's amazing what she retains.) "You know, stuff you've always wanted to do, but never could?" Her expression grows bright and slightly fierce as she watches him, and in the back of his mind, Justin understands he's probably already lost.

But wait, his subconscious desires are to...? With Harper...? No, gross!

"No way, Alex!" he snorts.

She nods sagely, exaggerating her movements as she looms over him . "Totally. That's what _subconscious_ means Justin," she smirks, "Look it up. Aaaand," she purrs, " you know what else?" Her lips curl up at the edges as her smile turns wicked, and the tip of her tongue pokes through her teeth for a second. "I bet... I'll _bet_ that there are subconscious desires you've harbored _even longer_ than the ones you're... he's... acting out with Harper! "She grins at him, openly.

_No. _

"_Way_ longer, Justin," she croons, exuding mock-sympathy like a cheap perfume, doing it so much better than he did, and making sure he gets it. "Like, since we were little. Yeah?" She trails a fingertip down the buttons on his shirt, and Justin swallows, hard. "...You think he'd be interested in acting them out _now_?"

_No…_

"I hear it's very _Antarctic_," she prods, drawing the incorrect term out in a teasing way, letting her voice tip up on the last syllable. Justin isn't going to take the bait. He isn't. She can't force him into a trap all the time, not anymore. He _isn't… _Oh, yes he is.

"Its _cathartic_," he whispers, then adds, "Alex, you wouldn't." His giant brain is still trying to work out how, exactly, this has backfired on him so quickly.

His sister widens her eyes innocently. "But you were _right_ Justin..." she pouts, and Justin is wracked with the completely simultaneous urges to kiss her and murder her. He has to settle for giving her a significantly dirty look, instead.

"...I _am_ jealous." She makes her puppy dog eyes at him, lip protruding.

"Alex..." he warns.

Still wearing her (not adorable) pout, she straightens up and smirks at him. Hands on her hips and looking pleased with herself, she's just five feet of evil in boots and a miniskirt. If he's being completely honest, she never looks quite as good as she does when she's twisting the knife in him. God, Justin really has issues.

She's not done. "But you know what?" her eyes flash, dangerously. "...I think I might just go and find outjust how much alike youtwo_ are. _I mean, technically, it's not even cheating!"

She closes the space between them, planting one black boot on the outside of his thigh, making her position of dominance obvious, and doing bad things to Justin's sanity. Justin is so bad at this. Silently, he repents. "But, what about Harper..." he pleads.

"Harper? Oh, that's not gonna be a problem. _'Free love, baby'_," Alex imitates, adopting a near perfect College Justin voice. "_'Like, there's plenty to go around, mamacita...!'_ And, you know," the corner of her mouth quirks up in a slightly naughty smile, "I don't even think she'll mind, Justin. Harper likes me. A _lot._"

Justin feels the last of his self control slide away.

As if sensing his capitulation, she crawls back onto the sofa until that she's practically in his lap, hovering so close that Justin can almost taste those sarcastic lips of hers, and he's so weak. A hairsbreadth away from his mouth (now slightly parted in anticipation, he's so, so weak), she whispers, "That is... unless you're _jealous_?

He groans.

She draws back and they lock eyes, each one silently daring the other to fold. They've done this so very many times, in so many ways, throughout the years. But Justin will never learn.

Alex is only teasing - she has to be. She wouldn't really do it... right?

The Lair fills up with the silence of a standoff, and tension stretches out between them, tight and thin.

Shoving him, Alex uses her perch to push off the chair like a runner from the starting block and sprints for the door, running hell-bent for leather. Justin lunges after her. He's almost, but not quite too late.

_(He's never, ever going to learn.) _

Alex's hand is on the freezer door that hides the Lair from the world, Justin's fingers centimeters from catching her wrist. Upstairs, Harper and College Justin monopolize the orange sofa in the loft. What happens next depends entirely on who catches up with who first.

It's just one of those things.


End file.
